


Uncharacteristically happy

by PerriewinkleNerdie



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23808175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerriewinkleNerdie/pseuds/PerriewinkleNerdie
Summary: Next day verifies all his fears.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 45





	Uncharacteristically happy

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello, hello! How we holding up, fam? I really hope you are all okay and taking care of yourselves <3  
> The idea for this fic came up after the last fic I posted, so I started playing with it and this is what came out of it :D  
> Enjoy! <3

It’s three in the morning when the darkness is annihilated by his bedside lamp. He should still be sleeping, but the turmoil in his mind kept him awake for the better half of the past hours. With a heavy sigh, he sat up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

After his father went to his room, Ethan practically threw himself towards his phone. He was greeted with her voice, making his pulse jump. She would tease him if she knew just how strong her hold on him was, so he was glad that she couldn’t see him in that moment.

“How was the chicken?” Claire asked, letting out a sigh he heard multiple of times when she finally relaxed after a long day.

“You’ll see for yourself tomorrow. I managed to save you a serving, Dad ate most of it.” he laughed, thinking about how much crap he would get from Alan if he heard him admitting that to her.

“Stop talking about food, it’s too late for me to sneak into the kitchen and grab a snack. Change the subject.” She laughed, scolding him the same amount as she was scolding herself for even bringing it up in the first place.

“What were you up to this evening?”

“Sienna baked cookies- dammit! We’re walking in circles.” Her laugh put a smile on his face, her words ringing in his mind, as they were about more than their conversation topics and they both knew it. “I will steal a couple and bring them to you tomorrow.”

“Those cookies of hers must be stellar if there are legends about them, circling around the hospital… and I know that from Naveen.” He rushed to explain, unsure how he felt about her being aware he knew a rumor or two.

Claire giggled shortly. “I’m sure you do. Anyway, it’s getting late and we both have an early shift in the morning. I’ll see you tomorrow, Ethan.” Her voice wrapped around his name, a tender caress that made his heart skip a beat, as cliché as that sounded.

“We’ll talk in the morning. Sleep well, Claire.”

He tried to occupy himself with something, anything to not think about her. The way her eyes sparkled when they moved around his kitchen with an ease of two people who were familiar with each other. The way she fit into his arms like she was made for him to hold her. How her lips moved against his, wiping his mind blank and leaving only the feeling of her. How she pulled him back inside and they made out against the wall like a pair of teenagers.

Yeah, she was definitely a good influence on him.

So that’s how he got to where he was now. Dead of the night, wide awake and getting out of bed. Sure, we went to work around 4.30 in the morning quite often, but it didn’t require him to wake up that early.

However, preparing a lunchbox for Claire, purely because he was an overachiever and he made his point to see a smile on her face, apparently required him to wake up at the break of dawn and move around his apartment as quietly as he could, because if his dad woke up and saw him putting so much effort into preparing food for her, he would not hear the end of it.

He rummaged through his cabinet, taking out a container for food, then took out the leftover chicken and placed it on the counter. Taking the knife into his hand, he proceeded to chop and transfer neatly cut pieces into the box, trying to make as little noise as he could. But even that turned out to be impossible.

“Ethan, is everything okay? It’s so early, you don’t have to leave for work for another hour, so why are you- oh.” Alan’s tired voice shattered the tranquility of the early morning, then the sleepy figure of an older man appeared in the doorway. He was about to ask further questions but was stopped when he saw what exactly it was that got his son out of the bed so early. “ _Oh.”_

“Don’t ‘oh’ me. I’m just-“

“You’re just preparing food for her, because she is important to you. Because you care about her. We’ve been over this, Ethan.” The doctor sighed deeply, shaking his head at the easy smile that pulled on his lips.

“Okay, yes. I woke up an hour early to prepare food for her. Because I want to see her smile. There, happy?”

“Immensely.”

\--------------

Ethan used to be one of a few doctors that started his work this early. It was not the case, at least not anymore. He parked his car by the employee’s entrance and turned the engine off, taking a deep breath. He then reached for his bag, lunch box inside, and grabbed the door handle when he heard soft knocking on the window.

At first, all he heard was incoherent mumble; once he got out of the car, he could hear her clearly. “Good morning, Dr. Ramsey.” Claire greeted him lightly, leaning against the hood of his car with a cheeky grin.

“You are uncharacteristically happy this morning, Dr. Herondale. Did something happen?” he kept up their teasing banter, allowing himself to let his guard down just a little. She nodded her head from side to side, scrunching her nose as she pretended to think. Then her face lit up like she just remembered what happened between them the previous evening, and her cheeks flushed.

“I seem to remember a man walking me out of his apartment and some… activities that took place afterwards. He did also promise me we would talk about it… just didn’t say when.” She tapped her finger on her chin, then took a step towards him, dropping her voice to a whisper. “So… got any suggestions?”

His gaze dropped to her lips for a fraction of a second before he composed himself, clearing his throat. “Maybe… after work… it’s a rather long and personal conversation that he wants to have with you.”

Claire nudged his arm with her hand, smiling at him brightly. “Sounds like a plan.” Her eyes ran to the bag in his hand. “What do you have in there?”

“Your lunch.” He reached for the lunch box and handed it to her, smiling shyly. That prompted her to dig through her own bad, taking out a neatly folded pouch and placing it in his hand.

“And here are your cookies. Sienna will be amused to say the least when she wakes up and finds a few missing, but I’m willing to shoulder that burden.” She winked at him, then began walking backwards. “Come on, we have a new patient coming in today, Baz got their file yesterday.”

\---------

Throughout the day, he would see her in the corridors or walking out of the patient’s rooms. Each time, an effortless smile made its way onto his lips, despite his best efforts to disguise it. It made him think about the reasons that made him decide to push her away in the first place. He remembered, very vividly, the moment he said to himself that they would be a distraction to each other, that any relationship between them other than that of being coworkers would put their jobs, their patients in jeopardy. As it turned out, it wasn’t necessarily a case, and he was being proven wrong every single day since he put distance between them.

Trying to stay away only made him notice her more. It’s a classic case of ‘the more you say you can’t do something, the more you want to do it anyway’. His eyes followed her around the room, his mind stopped for a moment every time she was near him, his focus was on every word she said. His whole being was tuned to her and her only, and while the quality of his work didn’t suffer, most of his energy was spent on him focusing on her, then him realizing that he was doing it and trying his best to stop himself from doing it. Needless to say, it became clear pretty much immediately that it was a futile effort, but Ethan Ramsey was a stubborn man who was convinced that with enough time and practice, he could learn to ignore her.

He couldn’t. And he didn’t.

Now, he had another point of view to consider. His meticulously crafted self-control broke like a fragile twig in one moment, and in the next, he had her in his arms, and he was kissing her, exactly like he wanted to do so many times. She didn’t push him away, he didn’t go back on his decision, and the air was lighter once more.

There was the creeping feeling of dread that followed him for the first few hours of his shift; the feeling of unease as to what their work together would look like, now that they stepped on the line he drew for them, and were one move away from leaving it behind them. All the insecurities he had, had vanished in the instant when they were diagnosing a patient and he realized that it has never been easier to do his job before. He knew that if they chose to start a relationship, they would have difficult moment, disagreements and full-blown arguments, so not that different than what they were doing now. The most important difference was that there would be much more at stakes, and that is what terrified him.

Claire’s steps seemed lighter, her demeanor brighter and her smile wider. She was working more efficiently, putting all of her focus on the patient when it was required of her, and crossed the boundaries with teasing him only slightly.

Before he knew it, lunch time rolled around, and he was alone in his office. His contemplation on what to eat was interrupted by an incoming message. Claire’s name flashed on the screen and there was a photo of her lunch attached to the message.

“Want some? I’ll trade you for one of the cookies.”

He looked at the pack of treats, sitting on his table, and replied, smirking.

“I’ll get the coffee started.”

Not even five minutes later, Claire walked into the room, closing the door behind her. She had already reheated the chicken and was now holding the box with one hand, two forks with the other. Sitting down on the couch, she waited for him to join her with two cups of coffee.

“I admire your willpower to not eat the cookies right away.” She said, handing him the fork. Ethan scoffed, shaking his head.

“Some of us can control themselves, Claire. It’s called willpower.”

“Sure they do.” Claire mused, taking her first bite. Her eyes grew wide, looking over to him quickly. “This is ridiculously good.” A wide grin grew on her face and he smiled triumphally, having achieved his goal.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I’m not sure if you understand, Ethan. Now that I know you can cook, I’m not sure if I can survive without it.” She leaned towards him, nudging his arm with hers.

“Oh really.”

“I would have to be stupid to not use the knowledge of you being a genius in the kitchen somehow.” Shrugging her shoulders, she ran the tip of her finger around the rim of her coffee cup.

They ate in silence for a bit, enjoying the comfort of each other’s company. She stole one last piece of chicken, right from underneath his fork, and ate it while looking straight at him with a satisfied grin.

“How did the talk with your dad go?”

“You were right, I really needed to talk to him. Avoiding him was the worst decision.” Ethan wrapped his hands around the cup, the glass almost burning his skin. Claire took a bite out of her cookie, deep in her thoughts. “We’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re getting there.”

“You have no idea how happy for you I am.”

She finished her cookie and subconsciously started eyeing the one he was eating. He noticed her staring, cocking his eyebrow in a silent question.

“Wouldn’t you like to have another one, huh?” he teased her, trying to resist the playfully pleading look in her eyes. When she batted her eyelashes, he sighed, extending his hand towards her, offering her his cookie. She took a bite, their gazes firmly on one another. Nodding her head in a silent ‘thank you’, she finished eating. Ethan’s eyes dropped to her lips, like he was hypnotized. “You’ve got, uh… here…”

His thumb brushed the crumbs away from her skin, his touch lingering on her chin; he was now staring blatantly at her. The intensity of his gaze caused a shiver to run through her. She didn’t have time to ask him what he was thinking, though.

Ethan dove forward, grabbing her face with his both hands and pressing his lips to hers. He kissed her with wild abandonment, forgetting where they were, who they were and what they were supposed to be doing. She responded after a moment, placing one hand on his shoulder and the other one on his side, keeping her touch light.

He leaned away suddenly, realizing what was happening. His eyes were wide, a sliver of panic crossing his features. Claire moved away from him, then looked towards the door, checking to see if anyone was watching them, but the corridor was empty.

“Claire?” his voice was deep and hoarse. When she looked back at him, she noticed how dark his irises had gotten.

“Yes?”

“Come back here.” He pleaded, wrapping his arms around her and hauling her onto him, tilting her back against the couch slightly. This time round, she was kissing him back with just as much passion as he had for her, her fingers tangling into his hair and pulling with gentle force, drawing out a long moan from him.

He moved one hand beneath her coat, smoothing the material of her shirt with his hand. Claire lowered herself entirely onto the couch, pulling him on top of her. A giggle slipped past her lips when her fingers glided down the column of his neck and he broke the kiss, fidgeting away from her tickling. His laughter mixed with hers, ringing around them.

He was breathing heavily, allowing himself a moment to just stop everything and look at her. Her pupils were wide, cheeks flushed. Lips bruised from assaulting his repeatedly. He held himself up with one arm, tracing the lines of her face with his fingers. Memorizing her, imprinting the in his mind. He outlined her lips, his breath catching in his throat when she bit his fingertip playfully.

“My god, you’re addictive.” Ethan growled lowly, pulling her back to him. Her hold on him tightened, their kisses turning from slow and unhurried to rushed and hard, every touch fleeting, sending a hot flame through their bodies.

Claire moved her lips along the line of his jaw, traveling to his pulse point and staying there for a long while, slowly driving him crazy. Ethan’s hand, that up until this point was running up and down her side delicately, has now stopped at her thigh, gripping it tightly, a last-ditch effort to hold in a desperate sound that threatened to escape him. To contain the overwhelming desire that threatened to consume him whole, right there and then, on the couch in his office, where they were in a _very_ public eye.

She brought her lips to his ear, breathing hotly against it as she whispered. “Maybe it’s not the best time and place for _that_ kind of a conversation.” His kiss on the skin of her collarbone interrupted her trail of thought, a small moan slipping past her open lips. “Don’t you think?”

Ethan sighed heavily, sitting upright, pulling her up along with him. He brushed her hair behind her shoulders, caressing the skin on her cheek tenderly. Smiling seemed easier to him, now that he wasn’t carrying the heavy burden of his choice with him everywhere.

“You’re right. How about we try the dinner again?” he murmured, twisting a lock of her blonde hair between his fingers. Claire scrunched her nose, pretending to think about his offer.

“Are we going to get interrupted again?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “No surprise visits this time, I promise.”

She nodded slowly, looking at him for a long moment. Her hand rested on his thigh and her lips touched his in a soft kiss. Leaning away for just an inch, she whispered. “Okay.”


End file.
